BLACK PLAGUE SYNOPSIS
HOME PENUMBRA: BLACK PLAGUE The story that unfolds in Black Plague has already taken place, we are allowed to revisit this drama via the memory of Phillip LaFresque. Phillip awakens in a dank, rotten room in a place called The Shelter which has been built over the old North-Western Iron Mine by a group called the Archaic Elevated Caste. The purpose of The Shelter is to research the strange happenings that took place at the mine prior to its closing in August of 1972 that resulted in many deaths and missing persons. What the scientists uncover is beyond anyone's ability to comprehend and by trying to manipulate it they unleash a new wave of death and madness upon the complex which has already endured so many like events over the previous decades. Phillip will learn a great deal about this place and what transpired here via documents, letters and computer files that he finds throughout the complex. There is a great deal more interaction with other people in Black Plague than was present in Overture as a few survivors have locked themselves away in various places to either protect those who find them from the Tuurngait virus or protect themselves from contracting the maddening sickness. The most important contact you will make is Dr. Amabel Swanson, a scientist at The Shelter who claims to have found a cure for the virus and communicates with Phillip via computer chats. It seems that Phillip has contracted the virus, probably through contact with the Infected at the end of Overture, and his only hope of survival hinges on finding Dr. Amabel who has sealed herself away in her lab. Phillip does not fully succumb to the virus and therefor does not become an Infected but he does develop a mental sidekick who calls himself Clarence. This presence that has attached itself to Phillip's mind is at times a very annoying companion, causing halucinations and even temporary blindness (I really just wanted to smack the hell out of him sometimes) but at other times his incessant babbling was quite amusing. Clarence is part of the collective mind of the Tuurngait it seems but having difficulty deciding how to handle this new dilemma of not being able to wholly convert the host. He will be Phillip's constant companion through out Black Plague. After escaping from the little room Phillip woke up in things get pretty puzzling pretty quick and they stay that way. Black Plague's puzzles are much more immersive than in Overture, at times incorporating every inch of the immediate surroundings in which they take place. A creative approach, or at least creative thinking, is a constant requirement during your adventures through the Shelter complex. There will be the familiar moments of dread when you meet enemies such as the Infected and your old friend the grey rock worm but overall this episode is more a journey of madness, more precisely it is a journey through madness and a very colorful, exciting one at that. It is a journey told as much from the Tuurngait's perspective as it is Phillip's memory of what happened during his time there. As you travel through The Shelter and the water cave and the Kennels and so on you will learn the story of all that took place here, of what happened to the scientists that came and disturbed the Tuurngait's quiet existence and what it requires of you. The Tuurngait does not agree with the destructive nature of mankind and wants no part of their world and it is leading you to fullfill the task it asked of your father, to destroy all evidence of this place forever. It is interesting that after you finally find Dr. Amabel you kill her but this is actually a reinforcement of the Tuurngait's desire to hide itself away as it once was. You unwittingly give it access to the last known survivor of The Shelter and Clarence invokes his greatest illusion yet making Amabel look like an Infected. Now that all eye witnesses are disposed of you are given a series of test to show your ability to cooperate, show mercy and demonstrate self sacrifice. I am not really sure why the Tuurngait felt this was important because it does not actually let you leave the complex to accomplish the task it has passed to you. Instead you are allowed to peacably re-enter the facility and use the computers to send an email to someone on the surface who is actually supposed to destroy all traces of the mines location. For the second time you do not follow instructions as you should.